A final-year student of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has been listed among the top ten global students making societal impacts.

Mathias Charles Yabe, studying communication design, is the only Ghanaian and African among other shortlisted students.

The 2022 Chegg.org Global Student Prize received applications from over 150 countries with nearly 7,000 nominations.

Mathias is presently the Chief Executive of AkoFresh, an AgriTech start-up, which offers smallholder farmers solar-powered cold storage preservation technologies to reduce post-harvest losses. 

The storage facility helps extend the shelf life of perishable crops from five days to 21 days, helping farmers to store perishable crops over five times longer than their shelf life under ambient temperatures.

The affordable and accessible technology to rural farmers thus reduces post-harvest losses by 50%.

Mathias, a Total Energies best young start-up recipient, also championed the designing of a disability-friendly virtual learning platform for hearing impaired students.

The technology, designed during the peak of COVID-19, afforded over 250 high school students an easy platform to aid them in studying during school closures.

Other finalists for the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2022 include Alesyah Asa, from Malaysia; Anagha Rajesh, from India; Gitanjali Rao, from the US; Igor Klymenko, from Ukraine; Kenisha Arora, from Canada; Lucas Tejedor, from Brazil; Maya Bridgman, from the UAE; Nathan Nguyen, from Australia; and Nicolás Alberto Monzón, from Argentina.

A whopping amount $100,000 of award is conferred annually on a student making impactful strides on learning, and transforming lives of their peers and society.

The winner for this year’s edition will be selected by the Global Student Prize Academy and announced at the end of September during the United Nations’ General Assembly week to be held in New York, USA.

Chief Executive Officer of Chegg, Dan Rosensweig said the prize affords students around the world to promulgate their impactful stories and harness their ingenuity to solve societal problems.

“Since its launch last year, the Global Student Prize has given incredible students all over the world a chance to share their stories, connect with each other, and reach influencers in education and beyond. Now, more than ever, students deserve to have their stories told and have their voices heard. After all, we need to harness their dreams, their insights, and their creativity to tackle the daunting and urgent challenges facing our world,” he said.

The Varkey Foundation partnered with Chegg.org to launch the annual Global Student Prize last year, a sister award to its $1 million Global Teacher Prize.

It was established to emphasize the outstanding efforts of students globally, who altogether, are transforming the world positively.